In response to the growing demands from its customers for a wide range of transparent, opalescent and satin lighting options for rail interiors, Elkamet decided to use two of Sabic’s new Lexan resins for its state-of-art lighting profiles

Railway coach manufacturers can now employ high-performance LED (light-emitting diode) lighting systems, including profiles that adhere to the sweeping new regulation aimed at ensuring safer European rail transportation, EN 45545.

The lighting profiles, a product of Elkamet, a leading manufacturer of profiles for lighting technologies, were on display at Sabic’s booth, along with other solutions from Sabic’s railway portfolio, at InnoTrans, the world’s largest rail show, in Berlin, Germany. Profiles are decorative and functional covers for a wide range of lighting solutions used in rail carriages.

In response to the growing demands from its customers for a wide range of transparent, opalescent and satin lighting options for rail interiors, Elkamet decided to use two of Sabic’s new Lexan resins for its state-of-art lighting profiles.

"Lighting is an integral part of the passenger experience, and our customers have asked us to create a range of transparent, opalescent and satin options that are critical for fostering a pleasant environment for travellers," says Björn Grunert, Elkamet’s director of Sales. "Together with Sabic, we were able to take advantage of high performance materials that deliver the benefits of custom-colourability via our proprietary extrusion process, and manufacturing efficiency – two benefits that we – and our own customers, value highly."

The new polycarbonate materials, both from Sabic’s renowned Lexan family of resins , comply with the new European railway fire safety standard EN 45545, which supersedes existing national legal frameworks and European directives for fire safety. The new resins also meet the EU bus standard 95/28/EG, expanding the range of similar solutions available to bus and coach manufacturers and their tier suppliers.

Lexan FXD9332T resin is a diffusive material that can be used to create covers for LED light sources given its inherent satin-like surface texture that helps scatter light and eliminate hot spots. The material can be sheet extruded, so Elkamet used its proprietary profile extrusion process to achieve the full satin-like effect without the need for texture rolls.

Lexan EX9332T resin is transparent and offers high transmission, making it an excellent candidate for applications that require very bright LED lighting. The Lexan EX9332T resin is superior to competing materials in that it has a narrow transparent variance specification, which means that the resin is stable when being extruded and does not exhibit strong color variations during a production run. This means manufacturers such as Elkamet can reduce the likelihood of lot-to-lot variations, which can impact product quality and manufacturing efficiency. The resin can also be custom-colored to meet customer requirements for decorative profiles, which can help to reduce waste and improve manufacturing efficiency by not having multiple colors in stock or having leftovers of specific colors.

Additionally, because these custom profiles are made using Sabic’s resins, they fulfil the highest level of regulatory compliance for the rail industry, Class R4-HL3.

"Observing the rail industry’s shift to an emphasis on LED lighting prompted our development of these two new materials, which have enabled Elkamet to be responsive to the needs of its customers," Kim Choate, marketing director for Mass Transportation for Sabic’s Innovative Plastics business, says. "Ever since EN 45545 was first discussed, Sabic has devoted considerable resources to anticipate the needs of its customers to comply. The result is that Sabic has the broadest range of EN 45545 compliant thermoplastic materials available today.

As a result of its successful use of the Sabic’s Lexan materials, Elkamet now plans to make further investments in special tools to support the extrusion process, enabling the firm to broaden its offering of speciality lighting profiles made from Lexan resins.

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